Attorney Kevin Shea vows to appeal decision to Virginia Supreme Court

NEWPORT NEWS — A Circuit Court jury has handed down a $1.2 million verdict against a local attorney in a legal malpractice case -- after a judge ruled he was to blame for missing crucial filing deadlines in a 2008 divorce case.

Last September, Circuit Judge John Clarkson found that Hampton lawyer Kevin P. Shea was "liable" for negligence in representing Lora A. Bennett, who once lived in Newport News but now lives in Kentucky.

Shea "failed to act as a reasonable, prudent, licensed attorney would have acted for the protection of the interests of Lora Bennett," Clarkson, a retired Norfolk judge substituting on the case, wrote in 2010.

In a 2010 lawsuit, Lora Bennett's lawyers contended Shea caused her to lose out on most of the spousal support her ex-husband had previously promised to pay her should their marriage fail.

A two-day jury trial was held late last month solely on how much in damages that Shea, 71, would be on the hook for. "We the jury award $1.2 million to Lora Bennett to compensate her for her injuries" from the "malpractice," the verdict said.

Rhiannon M. Jordan, an attorney with Jeremiah A. Denton III, P.C., the Virginia Beach firm that represented Lora Bennett, said the 7-member jury reached its decision in an hour, and that the damages were "to the penny" what she and Denton asked for at trial.

The $1.2 million, Jordan said, equates to the $3,000 monthly payment that Bennett, 50, asserts she could have gotten from her ex-husband over her life expectancy of about 35 more years — minus the $40,000 he paid her under a 2012 agreement over money and property.

The 2012 deal — which a judge allowed even after the 2008 divorce was final — is valued at about $300,000.

Under that agreement's terms, Richard G. Bennett, 48, was to pay his wife $40,000 over the first two years. Then he was to pay $667 a month — half his Air Force pension — after that. (Bennett has stopped making those payments, though Jordan said she was unsure why).

Since getting sued in 2010, Shea maintained he did not act with negligence. "Shea … has taken every possible step to safeguard (Lora Bennett's) rights in the matter," Shea's then-lawyer, Christina James, wrote in May 2010. Shea "did not fail in the care, skill or diligence due to the Plaintiff."

Shea, who said he would appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court, contends there were several problems with the trial. For one thing, he says, the jury — not the judge — should have determined whether he was negligent.

Shea contends it was improper for Clarkson to grant summary judgment last fall when there were many factual issues in dispute surrounding his diligence regarding the court deadlines.

"When half of the case is over with before you go to trial, then it becomes really difficult," said attorney Joe Stellute, a friend of Shea's who wasn't involved in the litigation but who argued the case in court last week. "You're pretty much at a very big disadvantage."

At issue were Shea's actions after Lora Bennett's husband of 21 years, Richard G. Bennett, sued her for divorce in 2008.

Clarkson found that Shea did not formally notify the court that he had been hired — with the divorce then going forward without his knowledge.

When Shea later filed an answer to the complaint, Circuit Court Judge H. Vincent Conway Jr. would not recognize it, saying it was past the 21-day deadline for a response and that Shea did not file paperwork asking to file late.

Later, 20 days after Conway issued the divorce, Shea learned about it from his client, who had just learned of it herself.

The next day — the 21st day from the decree and the last day Conway had jurisdiction to act — Shea filed a motion to vacate. But Shea didn't notify Conway of any urgency — such as by way of a cover letter — and the deadline came and went. The court lost jurisdiction.

In response to those allegations, Shea — hired by Lora Bennett only days before the first deadline — contended his client gave him an incorrect date for already-scheduled depositions, helping to sow confusion. Bennett could not be reached for comment, though Jordan said Bennett maintains she gave Shea the correct date.

Then, Shea said, he provided notice to Wanda Allen, the husband's attorney, that he had been hired. He said he gave notice with a phone call and follow-up fax from his legal assistant, with the fax transmittal sheet in the file.

Shea contended Allen "fraudulently" went forward with the divorce without telling him about it, asserting she intentionally misled the judge into thinking the divorce was uncontested.

But in an interview Thursday, Allen says she misled no one. She said she "never saw the fax" and didn't know of it or any phone calls from Shea. Had she known he was hired, she said, she would not have gone forward.

"I would have told my client that we won't have a divorce until we all made our arguments on behalf of our clients," Allen said.